The present invention relates to an artificial heart. Artificial hearts are known in the art.
One of the artificial hearts was developed by R. Jarvik and disclosed in several U.S. Patents. It is known to provide an artificial heart with an expanding and contracting diaphragm which is actuated by a supply of electric current and displaces blood through the heart. This artificial heart possesses the disadvantage in that a patient is always connected with an electric or compressed air source whose size and weight do not allow free movement of the patient. A patient cannot go far away for a long time from the sources of electro-pneumatic energy, since he or she could need an exchange of the batteries. Furthermore, the known diaphragm produces the blood displacement with such pressure pulse that after a certain time a patient can suffer a stroke or damage to peripheral vessels can occur. An artificial heart must satisfy several requirements. The dynamic requirement is that it must imitate the shape of blood pulse of a natural heart as close as possible, especially its steep front or the speed of pressure increase. The artificial heart shall be reliable in an emergency situation so that when an electric current of the network is shut off or the battery died, it shall be actuated by available sources in the vicinity of a patient. The sources of energy shall be portable and compact so that the sources and the heart actuator can be placed within or on the human body. The artificial heart shall perform its physiological function, be safe and non-damaging to any organs, be durable and reliable, be efficient, and cosmetically and psychologically acceptable. The existing artificial hearts do not satisfy all requirements listed hereinabove, and they can be further improved. It has been also recognized that in the known artificial heart, the patients may suffer from strokes or damages to the peripheral vessels after a certain time. This undesirable effect shall be eliminated as well. One of the main reasons for damages to peripheral vessels is a significant difference between an artificial and natural shapes of a blood pulse.